We welcome code contributions to the OSv open-source project, in the form of patches. The OSv project does not require copyright assignment - the copyright on your own contribution remains yours. However, contributions are independent, so you are considered a copyright holder of your piece of the code - not of the entire project. When you send a patch to the OSv project, we want you to certify that you wrote this patch, or otherwise have the right to submit it for inclusion in OSv. In more details, we want you to agree that: By making a contribution to this project, I certify that: (a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I have the right to submit it under the open source license indicated in the file; or (b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best of my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source license and I have the right under that license to submit that work with modifications, whether created in whole or in part by me, under the same open source license (unless I am permitted to submit under a different license), as indicated in the file; or (c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other person who certified (a), (b) or (c) and I have not modified it. (d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution are public and that a record of the contribution (including all personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off) is maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with this project or the open source license(s) involved. To state that you agree to these conditions for code contribution, all you need to do is to add a line to your patch stating: Signed-off-by: Your Real Name <your@email.address> You may notice that the above four conditions are identical to the "Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1" used in the Linux kernel's development. The "signed-off-by" process was copied from Linux as well.